Hello, hello!
Mid summer and the living is S L O W and H O T here on Vine. However, the garden is growing and indoor chores are getting done. We planted two tomato plants in May and they have reached to five feet and covered the 4 X 6 foot raised box; the vines are completely covered in fruit and we expect to have ripe tomatoes by the end of this week . . . yay! Do love some fresh off-the-vine 'maters! Another fruit making a grand showing is the watermelon - my granddaughter gave me four Crimson Sweet seedlings for Mother's Day and the two that survived are mega-producing!
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| June 27, 2018 - The start. |
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| July 18, 2018 - Tiny first fruit. |
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| July 24, 2018 - Palm size. |
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| July 28, 2018 (just four days later!) - Two palms size. |
I know it probably seems silly to get so excited over a watermelon, but this is the first time we've planted one and we are amazed! Thanks to my watermelon-loving granddaughter, we'll be sinking our teeth into sweetness in a couple weeks! Incidentally, that same granddaughter, McKenna Clare, is getting married August 17th to a fine young fellow and we'll be gifting them with a quilt which I made all by myself. Here are more progression photos:
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| The rows laid out on the living room floor in preparation for sewing together. |
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| Bent over the sewing machine stitching the rows together. |
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| The completed top draped over lawn chairs. |
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| The flange binding - so pretty! |
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| Test drive on our bed! |
I began this quilt summer 2017; that is, I purchased the video class from
Craftsy, Make a Colorful Hexagon Bed Quilt by Amy Gibson (no longer available) and decided to use some batik prints that my sister had given to me way back, I can't remember when. My sweet and handy husband made templates out of some plexiglass that I had saved because I might
need it someday and I began cutting the hexagons and triangles. I'd gotten some pale grey cotton for the background, binding, and back. Well, my chicken heart loomed and the project was put on hold. I couldn't imagine that I had the wherewithal to make a quilt that BIG - my previous attempts were baby or throw size and I had found those daunting. Anyway, long story short, granddaughter McKenna said YES to her squeeze Travis's proposal in April of this year and the wheels began to engage in a confident sort of way. By golly! I
can make this quilt! And so, I began sewing in earnest by the first week of July and by the 26th had it completed except for a label (which another talented woman is embroidering for me). Today I stopped at our local furniture store and found a very neat antiqued metal crate to present it to the newlyweds August 17th.
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| A pretty presentation. |
My current sewing project is making myself a dress for the wedding. I haven't sewn a garment (anyway for myself) for years and am looking forward to seeing if I can still do it - and have it fit! Haha! The one thing that bugs me about this is the size I'm having to use . . . ack! The days of misses size 10/12 are certainly long gone!
August has a few birthdays that I want to make handmade cards for and, of course, there is a card to make for McKenna and Travis's wedding day. I have gotten a start on that having colored in two of an illustration I found in an online coloring book site.
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| The illustration on the left I colored with Zig Real Brush Watercolors and the one on the right I did with colored pencils. |
The wedding colors are soft blue, sage green, and ivory and the bride is a blonde and the groom is a redhead. Right now I'm leaning toward using the watercolored one for the final card. What do you think? Watercolor or pencil?
Loving life here on Vine.
